Wichita eagle., 1887-05-13
aail5 eagle
MARTHA WASHINGTON
NOT AN EDUCATED WOMAN IN THE
SENSE OF TO-DAY.
She Was a Poor Speller and Her Gram
mar Would Hardly Pass Muster-Indis-
criminate Use of Capital Letters in
Writing-The Home Sphere.

criminate Use of Capital Letters in
Writing-The Home Sphere.
Martha Washington was not an educated
woman in the sense Of to-day. She did not
spell WELL and her grammar would hardly
staud the parsing of the public schools.
Copies of two of her letters to her sister, Mrs.
Bassett, lie before me. They were written at
about the beginning Of the revolution She
begins one thus: II hare ivrote to you several
times, in hopes it would put you in mind OF
me, but l find it has not had its intended ef-
fect.n Further on she says: "The rivers has
never been frozen hard enough to walk upon
the ice since l came here" Among the mis-
spelt words of the letter are: "Navey" for
navy, "loded" for loaded, "coles" for Goals,
distant for destined, "clere" for clear,
1heare" for here, ''plesed" for pleased and
agreatful" for grateful. Company she spells
occupancy" and persuaded "perswaded."
In the fac-simile of a letter that she wrote
to William B. Reed, of New York, in 1777, l
see that she knew no other punctuation mark
than the DASH that the apostrophe was a
stranger to her, and that her writing, though
not ilIegible, was far from beautiful or ele-
CANT. The use of the capital was as embar
RAISING to her as the use of the punctuation
point, and her letters look as though the cap
itals had been shaken out of mammoth pep
per box and permitted to lie wherever they
fell
ONE OF HER LETTERS
One of her letters, commencing @My dear
Fanny" was lately communicated by the
Rev. II. E. Hayden, of Pennsylvania, to The
Magazine of American History. 1t is dated
- nd fba
batim spelling and punctuation are preserved
i'm the publication. Some Of the sentences
begin with capitals and some without She
writes of "My little nelly" referring prob
ably to Nellie Custis, and In the same line
says that "Tut is the same claver Clever boy
you left him. thus capitalizing the boys
name, while she gives no capital to that of
the girl. She writes Fanny that "The Gen
eral had received letter from her papa"
dated at richmond" +" begins the next sentence
with small letter, and in it capitalizes
"Brothers," Family" and General"
A person uses his best grammar while writ
ing, and he who makes mistakes here makes
more in conversation Martha Washington
may have been well educated in the school of
society and in that of life. She was certainly
not SO in books or literature There was no
library 10 speak OF at MOUNT vernon, ana
Gen. Washington was more of an out-of-door
man than student. We have no record of
his wife being a reader, save that she read a
chapter in her Bible every morning after
breakfast. She knew nothing about novels,
and the American monthly magazine, the
great family educator of the present, was not
yet born.
Martha Washington had, however, the best |
advantages of the day. Her whole life was
spent among learned men and bright women,
but there is no record left that she was bril- |
liant in social conversation, and you will read
in vain for the reported bon mots of Martha
Washington. The truth seems to be that
Martha Washington thought woman's sphere
was home, and that knitting and cooking
were more important than writing letters and
a knowledge or French. She is said to have
been q good business woman, and to have
managed the large estate of her first husband
very ably before she handed her share Of it
over to George Washington. G. Car
penter in The Cosmopolitan. Il